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February 28, 2008
There are so many hot button issues today it's not possible to pick "the" biggest one. But certainly in the top five (unfrtunately there are 100 things in the top 5) must be "net neutrality." Essentially it is whether commercial internet service providers (like Comcast or RCN) should be allowed to…
February 28, 2008
When WHO tells us that there is no bigger bird flu problem in China I guess it's all relative. Like the old joke where one old man asks the other how he feels, the answer is "compared to what"?
The World Health Organization says that while there have already been three deaths from bird flu in…
February 27, 2008
I'm away from home and I did something really, really bad to my back. I could hardly tie my boots this morning (boots needed; it is snowing like stink up here). One of my fellow scientists took one look at me and said, "I guess you need some Vioxx." Then he laughed. Since I hardly know this person…
February 27, 2008
Chromium is OK when it's on your car bumper but not so OK when it's in your workplace air or your drinking water. That's because chromium, in some of its forms, causes cancer. In fact it is a remarkably good carcinogen. A few years, ago both epidemiological studies and risk estimates done by the US…
February 26, 2008
Since I'm up in Canada doing some science (presenting a paper at a meeting) I thought I'd give a little plug for one of my favorite sites, Daily Dose of Imagery. If you like photography, this guy from Toronto is worth taking a look at. There's a new pic every day (hence the name) and you can page…
February 26, 2008
As I write this I am at 30,000 feet winging my way to Montreal, Canada, where the temperature is below freezing. So what more appropriate topic than microbial hazards of bathing beaches? Maybe it was my foray into the wonderful world of fecal accidents that prompted me to look further into the…
February 25, 2008
I hate writing posts like this almost as much as people hate reading them. But write them I must. It's the cell phone issue again.
Health risks from cell phones aren't supposed to happen because the radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation involved is not energetic enough to ionize molecules. The…
February 25, 2008
The simultaneous news of widespread flu and the mismatch of two components of this year's seasonal vaccine (see here and here) seem to have synergized. That's not so good in the view of many flu experts, who believe (correctly) that it leads to a misunderstanding of how the vaccine works (or doesn'…
February 24, 2008
Stories about insurance companies denying coverage are all too common (what kind of world is this, anyway?). But yesterday's story that a big insurer would have to pay for it is a surprise (what kind of world is this, anyway, that this is a surprise?):
One of California's largest for-profit…
February 24, 2008
This is the Final Word, I guess:
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday that God would punish Iranians if they do not support the country's disputed nuclear program, state radio reported.
"The Iranian people openly announce that they will defend their rights... God…
February 23, 2008
Indonesia is providing bird flu specimens to WHO again. And Indonesian Health Minister Dr Siti Fadilah Supari has just published a book declaring the 50 year plus history of global influenza surveillance is part of a conspiracy by the developed world to control the rest of the world:
"Developed…
February 22, 2008
Recently we posted on the insanity of requiring informed consent for posting a hygiene checklist in the ICU. This week the New England Journal of Medicine weighed in.
Here's some background from the NEJM Commentary:
About 80,000 catheter-related bloodstream infections occur in U.S. intensive care…
February 22, 2008
CDC has just issued a report on the state of US readiness for a health crisis. Its assessment is upbeat:
In the first report of its kind, US health officials said the nation's cities and states made a strong effort to prepare for a flu pandemic, bioterrorism, or other emergency health crises, but…
February 21, 2008
How To Behave On An Internet Forum
Source: Videojug (hat/tip Boingboing)
February 21, 2008
A notice from ProMed yesterday alerted many of us to a new published report [subscription firewall] about H5N1 influenza detection in an arthropod species in the vicinity of an infected poultry farm. The arthropods were mosquitoes (Culex tritaeniorhynchus) in Thailand. Two years ago a similar…
February 20, 2008
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn't want Americans to buy legal pharmaceutical products from Canada where the identical drug is considerably cheaper because the imported drug might not be safe. Those unreliable Canadians. Better to pay top dollar for heparin from the American…
February 20, 2008
A paper published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) extends the work of a group of glycobiologists at MIT on unravelling why some flu virus likes bird cells and others like human cells. Glycobiology is the science that investigates the sugar studded proteins on…
February 19, 2008
Even in the world of giant beef recalls in the US this one stands out: 143 million pounds. This dwarfs (by a factor of four) the previous recall record of 35 million pounds, and as the AP report observes, amounts to two hamburgers for every man, woman and child in the United States. This one has an…
February 19, 2008
There's bird flu in poultry all over Bangladesh and new human cases reported in China, Vietnam and Indonesia. Is this the sound of the other shoe dropping? Or is it just this:
This barchart is from February 5 so it doesn't include all the new cases. But it clearly shows that when we get to flu…
February 18, 2008
I hardly know what to make of a story about market research on the top ten flavors predicted for 2008. For one thing, I have no idea what some of these flavors are. I had to Google several. But what do I know?
The top sweet flavor, according to Bell Flavors and Fragrances, isn't that exotic: mango…
February 18, 2008
Accidents in swimming pools can be serious or fatal (drowning, broken necks) but fortunately they are rare. For pool operators one of the more likely nightmares of daily operation is when someone has "a fecal accident." In other words, someone craps in the swimming pool. CDC has guidelines for…
February 17, 2008
When my colleagues announced early afternoon on Friday he was headed home because he was sick, I knew the flu had finally arrived on my doorstep. It was already here, of course. The emergency rooms are jammed, clinics have long waits and hospital admissions for flu are up -- way up. The flu…
February 17, 2008
August, 1969. I was a young doctor and in those days it was common to lend a hand at mass demonstrations, sit-ins, "sanctuaries", free clinics. Some of it was scary as hell (the Chicago convention) but a lot of it was boring. Some of it had low priority, especially when it wasn't political and…
February 16, 2008
It's official. Living in one of the 120,000 trailers FEMA supplied after Hurrican Katrina is bad for you:
Federal health officials on Thursday urged hurricane victims to move out of trailers supplied by FEMA after tests showed dangerous levels of formaldehyde fumes.
Tests by the Centers for Disease…
February 16, 2008
A lot of things that seem on first glance to be "news" are really just reprints or slight edits of press releases written to tout a commercial product. This is also true of "Newsletters" that charge money for inside news.
Datamonitor is a company that claims to be "the world's leading provider of…
February 15, 2008
"Open Access" is apparently an Idea whose Time has Come:
All papers by Harvard scholars accepted for publication as of today will be freely available to the public. The Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences unanimously passed a motion last night (February 12) that requires all arts and sciences…
February 15, 2008
We've posted a bit (here and here) on this year's flu vaccine and some mismatches. Because of the time it takes to ramp up production the flu vaccines for the following season are made in the early spring of the year before, often, as now at the peak of the ongoing flu season. Yesterday WHO…
February 14, 2008
Via one of my favorite blogs, Brain Police, this primer on US - Iranian relations:
So in 1953 we screwed the Iranian people out of a democracy so a British company could keep stealing their oil. Now it's bad for us and really bad for the Iranians. Especially Iranian workers:
As you probably know…
February 14, 2008
If you've ever boned a chicken (and who hasn't, right?) you know it isn't easy. It's hard on the hands and dangerous if you are doing it fast, with sharp knives. How fast? Say, a few thousand chicken breasts a day? Every day. Day after day. And doing it for chicken feed (metaphorically speaking),…
February 13, 2008
If I commit a crime against and possibly damage who knows how many American citizens I sure hope Congress comes to my rescue and gives me retroactive immunity:
The Senate voted Tuesday to shield from lawsuits telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on their customers…